Doing homework, doing it right

Many parents (like us) will be or already busy with helping the kids with home work or school work.

Most of the time, Inez would do her home work by herself (Sri Lanka and Chinese genes are strong).

This evening, she handed me some books to run through to check if she would be able to answer the questions on the home work correctly. So I went through the books. I realised, home work is actually a really good time for parent and kids to get together. Like spending quality time together.

What I think would work really well for ‘New Malaysia’ education system.

Have parents to do the school work together. Yes, I know, you are busy. We need to work to find food to place on the table so kids would not starve. Think about how you could teach your kids (or rather you actually will be learning from the primary school books, stop laughing that you think you won’t be learning anything, you are wrong) and also learning something new.

Parents could also know what the kids are learning from school. Should there be anything ‘funny’ that the school is teaching the kids, so you would know no?

We will be a real New Malaysia, truly new! You would be surprise how parents can now play a part in making Malaysia great (again, if ever)?

Two-way education. No longer about school teaching your kids. But, you are a part of the education. Living and working nearby schools in Puchong, I really struggle with the traffic whenever I am out and coming back. I really see I should not suffering this traffic madness without actually gaining something worth while in return. I really mean it. I have heard from many educators talking about how education for child works at home as well as school, and never leave the teaching of the child to the school alone. Parents need to play their part. Playing their parts, I mean not just about sending and fetching the kids to school, sending them to tuition etc.

Take notice and pay attention to the child growth. The twins and daughter, they sometimes excel in studies. Recently twins were doing quite well in their exam, which I think got to do with them paying close attention to studies, without neglecting the importance of physical health such as sports. Daughter got number one in her class in the recent exam. We also want them to learn about life, beyond the education or studies alone. Teach them how to think, how to react on situations, what should they be doing etc.

Finally, it is continue life learning process. Whoever says that, “I am too old for that, I am too old to learn,” is the worst parent ever. Yesterday I was having tea with the twins in Lukut, we overheard (some people talk really loud), “Stop challenging my intelligence lopou (wife), I am too tired to answer your stupid questions, I also do not want to study and learn new things!” he said it in front of the kids. Or the kids were on the musics or YouTube with their earphones on. Maybe he was frustrated. I wish him well. Retna and I love to learn new things. More so there are so many things we do not know in life just yet. We went to learn about Chinese art paper cutting (we passed our clients for Chinese New Year as gift), attended money market session (which really hard to understand, but we still want to learn more), learn how to drive a stunt man (yes, we did, that was crazy), yoga (I don’t really like it) etc. Just keep learning, do not stop.

My mother used to tell me when she was in her fifties, that she is too old to do this, and that. She is still telling me the same thing today (just spoke to her last night) about learning anything new. She would often told me, that how she regretted not to learn this and that. So, you see?